A VIEW FROM THE STREET

LABOR UNDER FIRE
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THE ST. LOUIS MAYOR'S SUMMIT ON ENDING HOMELESSNESS

A VIEW FROM THE STREET
By Anthony M. Streckfuss
May 2, 2003

For the past 4 months I had been working in conjunction with a small local magazine called "Whats Up" that centers on homelessness here in the city of St. Louis Mo. area. I started out by working on an article I wrote for the editor to print in his magazine that was written in a rather hap hazarded way talking about the conditions of the low income employees of St. Louis and the low class temporary agencies and the effect they have on not only the low income but the homeless employee as well. I first got to meet the publisher of this magazine on April 30, 2003 when I went to a fundraiser he sponsored for the homeless. He then told me of this summit and invited me to join under his invitation.

You may be asking your-self what I would have to do with an auspices summit, where those conducting the program have all of those initials behind their names. Let me give you and idea as to what my background is. I am a 52 year old white male who has been a resident of the St. Louis area my entire life, I am the 5th of 6 son's born to my parents, my father was killed just 3 months before my 3ed birthday and my mother raised us by herself for over 13 years before remarrying. I served 8 years in the U.S.M.C. during the Vietnam ear and was given extensive training and education in the aviation field, I have 3 1/2 years collage where I maintained a major and 4 miners while caring 16 to 18 hours per semester year round and at the same time working 40 hours a week, taking care of a wife and 2 children. I had divorced my wife in 1985 and feel into a very low pit in my life that took over 7 years to return from. The road back was long and hard, I had to rediscover who I was and not what everyone else wanted me to be. I thought I was going to remain there because it seemed that every time I took a step forward to improve myself there seemed there was someone else there to pull the rug out from underneath me and put me right back were I had been.

It wasn't until the manager of a grocery store took a chance on me that I finely started to come out of that pit. My progression from there was up. I worked a number of jobs that took me higher up on the pay scale and I thought that nothing could stop me now. Well there was, it was my last best paying employer (I wont tell you who). I worked for them for nearly 2 years were I had worked my way from being a packer to that of an extruder operator and line set up man. The last 11 months I was the shop-Stewart for my shift and department were I let both sides know "if your right your right, if your wrong your wrong" and I held this office in that manner. The company didn't like me as a steward because I won most of my grievances and stood my ground, so they started a campaign to be rid of me and they did illegally. At one point they had even controlled my over-time to were I had to give up my apartment and try to find cheaper housing and ended up living out of my car while working for them and shortly after being fired I lost even that and was forced into the homeless state of living. Trying to fight them to regain my job, fighting them for my unemployment benefits, fighting to stay feed and clothed and fighting with the thoughts of my Mother dieing of cancer finally got to be to much. In November of 2002 I settled for a small financial sum (but not my job) and lived nice for a short period, then I started working temporary employment agencies while looking for another decent job, or I would fall back into that pit again until I met my present wife Cora B. Streckfuss (who was at one time homeless and jobless for 3 months and living in shelters for over one year during the early 90's), we were married on Aug 2, 2002 and she has been my strongest supporter and my rock ever since.

If it had not been for Cora I would not be were I am today. Since Thanksgiving of last year I have worked for 5 different temp agencies and as of the 1st of the year I have only worked 55 hours. What all of this has to do with anything is that my Wife Cora is black and one of the sweetest people you would ever want to meet and when she wants to put on her real smile it will melt your heart and run a thrill through your soul, but she can also be just as stubborn and hard headed as I am and she try's very hard to keep me in line. We have had our share of problems because of our marriage and more than likely will in the future but that will be then. She has allowed me to work on my web site "Labor Under Fire" endlessly, because I can't find work, she also knows when completed and if used by anyone, it could help keep others from facing what we are facing now as for employment, and during the past 4 months she has been the bread winner with me bringing in the milk money.

Because of everything that had happened to me during the past 3 years and my attempt to start this web site and putting everything together on my own and trying to make everything useful as well as trying to write articles that I think might be useful to others I had decided to except "What's Up" magazine on their offer and go to the summit.

The opening of the summit was quite informative, even if it may have been a bit of a high brow approach to the problem they were wanting to cover, one of which is my present passion of temporary labor agencies effect on the homeless and low income, I go a bit further and add labor law to mine. After the presentation we were broken up into 4 groups and I was directed to the group they said covered this issue. The group director had a fire in her eyes that seem to speak a strong desire for the issue at hand. We all identified our self's and who we represented and I did as a former homeless person and a present temporary employee and publisher of "Labor Under Fire", my web page. The questions and answers that were being tossed around were interesting and the people on my panel were very diverse as for as back ground and education, me being the lowest on the food chain, input from all was very enlighten and informative and being the opinionated person that I am I put my $2.50 in on a number of occasions. It wasn't until the focus was taken off of the people we were trying to help, did I start to get a since of being pushed back into a corner, now this could be just me because I have a bit of a suspicious mind even though I try to give the benefit to the other person or person's. It finally came to the point were I felt I should leave because the issue had drifted and the temporary employment agency issue had not been addressed or approached but I hung in there waiting. As they were trying to draw the group to a close I forced the issue as politely as possible and made my commits known, letting them know that the web site was out there and offered a few reports to reflect what the issue is as far as temporary agencies and their conduct with the employee's they have on their employee rental pay roll's. At first the coordinator said that we were not talking employment or labor but 2 or 3 others supported me and I did get to say some of my piece and show some of what I have been up to, which a mounted to about 6 minutes.

At the start I was going to rate the summit from 1 to 5 and was about ready to give it an over all 4+ until half way through the group when I sensed that things were going the wrong way and could not bring since to what they were doing or where they where going. Because two or three people choice to give some support to my issue I now wish to rate the summit at 2.75 on my scale of 5. I wish not to be critical but the issue at hand of homelessness has more twist and turns than and old Arkansas back road and needs more time and understanding than it needs money and surveys by people with a lot of initials behind their names and writes reports the people on the street can't understand. If we are going to address issues, lets get in the street, put their shoes on, walk that mile or even an extra mile in their shoes and learn what the problem is from both sides of the coin by experience not by reports, then we might be able to reduce homelessness and not talk homelessness. Lets join the University of The School of Hard Knocks and get those ostentatious initials behind our names.

If we were to travel to a foreign land where we did not know their culture, language or ethics and arrived with those same elements describing who we are and we made no attempt to understand them on their plain and did everything as Americans, who would or could understand the other. With no attempt to cross the barriers of differences there is no gain in knowledge, understanding or cross communication. To be the only one with knowledge of a given problem serves only the knowledgeable with no change to the issue or problem.